Denver youths ages 17 and younger will have free access to the city’s recreation centers and pools, thanks to a $150,000 grant from Kaiser Permanente.

Mayor John Hickenlooper and Kaiser Permanente president Donna Lynne announced the grant Tuesday. It is the second year Kaiser has provided the youth-recreation funding for the city.

Hickenlooper and Lynne made the announcement during a news conference along with City Councilwoman Judy Montero and Denver Parks and Recreation Manager Kevin Patterson.

They spoke amid a backdrop of children playing in Argo Park in the Globeville neighborhood, which is in Montero’s council district. The park’s playground is one of 11 in the city undergoing renovations. The playground upgrades were financed by voter approval of a bond-improvement program.

The city first provided youths free access to the recreation centers and pools three years ago. Budget constraints have required private money to keep the program going.

Over the past two years, more than 162,000 children took advantage of the free summer program. The program will run June 4 through Aug. 14.

Christopher N. Osher is a reporter on the investigation team at The Denver Post who has covered law enforcement, judicial and regulatory issues for the news organization. He also has reported from war zones in Africa.

Spain came under repeated attack starting Thursday in what authorities called linked terrorist incidents, when a driver swerved a van into crowds in Barcelona’s historic Las Ramblas district, killing more than a dozen people and injuring scores of others. Early Friday, an attempted attack unfolded in a town down the coast

If there’s one superhero character whose rise might be most tied to the events of World War II, it is Captain America, who emerged from the minds of legends Joe Simon and Jack Kirby and sprung forth from an iconic 1941 debut cover on which Cap smacks Hitler right in the kisser.

A customer dining at Washington’s Oceanaire restaurant noticed an unusual line at the bottom of his receipt: “Due to the rising costs of doing business in this location, including costs associated with higher minimum wage rates, a 3% surcharge has been added to your total bill.”